By Jeni Marinucci
Breakfast for dinner has long been a favourite meal for many, and it seems the restaurant sector is now recognizing the financial benefits to our shifting tastes: both by expanding options on breakfast menus and increasing the length of time they serve them. Tim Hortons notably extended their breakfast hours last year to great consumer applause, but even pushing the hours of “bacon and eggs” availability until noon has left some meal-seeking customers hungry for more, especially those in the coveted millennial demographic.
The trend of all-day breakfast isn’t slowing down, and in fact, it’s growing: recent statistics now show that while baby boomers eat the majority of their breakfast meals at home, a large percentage of millennials eat their breakfast at QSRs, and not just during conventional breakfast hours. A study from Mintel reports that 60 per cent of millennials eat breakfast somewhere else rather than at home.
Reasons for serving breakfast for longer periods also reflect the shifting idea of what the “morning rush” now looks like. An increasing segment of the workforce enjoy the benefits of working remotely from home or have flexible hours, and as such are no longer a part of a typical rush hour crowd. Allowing patrons to enjoy breakfast foods at the time of their choice serves their needs and many restaurants are recognizing the benefits, including restaurant giants like McDonald’s, whose American restaurants have been serving all-day breakfast since 2016. McDonalds plans to roll-out the all-day concept here in Canada by beginning testing this month. Several of their larger urban locations now offer all-day breakfast menus, with more expected to join shortly.
If profits and share price are any indication of breakfast success, McDonald’s is on the right track. After the chain began offering free coffee in upsell efforts to move more breakfast items, they’ve seen a marked upswing in share prices. The Globe and Mail notes the remarkable increase of 25 per cent, from US$96 per share to its current standing of $122, since the implementation of their all-day breakfast strategy.
Breakfast has long been considered “the most important meal of the day,” both for consumers, and for the foreseeable future, for the restaurant industry as well.
